Call to the Mathematics Education Communityfor Suggestions and Comments

Bernard R. Hodgson

Here are some issues with which the ICMI Executive Committee is currently dealing, or will deal soon, and about which we would be grateful to receive suggestions and comments from the ICMI National representatives, as well as from all others in the mathematics education community interested by ICMI activities. You are invited to contact the Secretary as soon as possible to present your views on these issues.

1. ICMI Studies

Besides the "Algebra" Study (ICMI Study 12), whose Study Conference will take place in December 2001 in Melbourne, three other Studies are currently in progress, at more or less advanced stages:

ICMI Study 13, the so-called "Comparative" Study, is well under way, and the International Programme Committee will meet in October 2001 to prepare the programme of the Study Conference, which will take place in Hong Kong in October 2002.

ICMI Study 14 is devoted to the topic of Applications and Modelling in Mathematics Education. The composition of the IPC was announced in the December 2000 issue of the ICMI Bulletin, and this committee will meet in August 2001 to prepare the Discussion Document, which should be available by the end of 2001. The Study Conference will take place in Dortmund in 2003.

ICMI Study 15 is on teacher education and development. Its IPC is currently being appointed and it is planned that the Study conference will take place early in 2004.

The ICMI Executive Committee is currently considering quite a few possible themes for future Studies. Among these:

Mathematics beyond the classroom: competitions and challenges

IT revisited

Statistics and probability in mathematics education

The role of proofs and proving in mathematics education

Problems of teaching in non-affluent countries

History of mathematics education

Relation of mathematics education to general education

Integration of mathematics education and science education at the primary school

Connection of mathematics and other discipline (from primary to university)

Mathematics for and from the workplace

While the two topics that appear the most "ripe" to us at the moment are the first two, we are welcoming any comments or additions to this list. The ICMI Executive Committee hopes to launch a new Study (ICMI Study 16) at its next annual meeting, in July 2002, and possibly to identify the theme of Study 17 at the same time.

You are thus invited to forward your views on the themes of the next Studies, as well as suggestions of names for members of the International Programmes Committees or chairs (or co-chairs) of these IPCs.

2. ICMI ECThe term of the current ICMI Executive Committee will be ending on December 31, 2002. A new EC will thus be appointed by the General Assembly of the International Mathematical Union (IMU) when it will meet in Shanghai in August 2002. The tradition is that the slate of ICMI EC candidates proposed to the GA of IMU is prepared by the Executive Committee of IMU three of four months before the Assembly. The ICMI EC will be in contact with the IMU EC to discuss the composition of this slate, and you are all invited to forward as soon as possible to the ICMI Secretary your suggestions of names for candidates to the various positions on the ICMI EC. Please specify the position to which your propose a candidate, and give a few brief statements about the qualifications of the candidate. Comments on general guiding principles for the composition of the EC are also welcome.

3. ICME-10The International Programme Committee of ICME-10 is having its first meeting in June 2001. The following months will thus be devoted to the fine-tuning of various aspects of the programme, in particular the identification of so-called regular lecturers, of topics for the working groups, as well as organisers of these groups. Your comments and suggestions about these or other aspects of the programme should be send to the Chair of the International Programme Committee, Mogens Niss (mn@mmf.ruc.dk).

4. ICME-11Just a brief reminder of the call made in the December 2000 issue of the ICMI Bulletin for bids to host ICME-11, in 2008, to be sent to the Secretary by September 1, 2002.

5. Terms of reference of ICMIThe current Terms of reference of ICMI go back to 1986 and are in serious need of being updated. They appear in the ICMI Bulletin No. 47 (December 1999), pp. 35-36, and can also be found on the ICMI website at the address

We would like to propose to the Executive Committee of IMU, before the General Assembly to be held in August 2002, a new versions of our Terms which could then be adopted by the GA of IMU. Again your views are most welcome.